More down to Thatcher than Brown. She was the one to kill off a lot of British industry.

"Kill off" by not subsiding the unprofitable ones out of taxpayers' money. So we pay twice over, once for their overpriced, low-quality products, and again for higher taxes. Oh joy.

Let's be honest here, who really thought British Leyland was worth saving? Anyone? Do I hear a big "hell no"? (If I didn't, I damn well should have.) They were producing stuff that was unreliable, performed worse than the competition, was poorly designed and was made by shoddy workmen who didn't care that they're turning out crap. Add to that the unions who ensured that you couldn't do anything about the crap workmen or reorganise to get better productivity, and the country gets what it deserves, I'm afraid.

Yes, Britain is doing little physical manufacturing. But it's doing an absolute shitload of design work and intellectual-capital stuff - cars, phones, software, buildings, etc, etc - and that's where we as a country are making money these days.

Graham.